More activities to celebrate Hung Kings Festival (May 1, 2007)

More activities to celebrate Hung
Kings Festival

A ceremony to pay
tribute to Hung Kings in Suoi Tien Park.

Approval was recently given for workers around the
country to add one more day to their yearly holidays on the occasion of the
Hung Kings Anniversary. It will fall annually on March 10 in the lunar
calendar (April 26) this year.

Due to the fact that it is the first time this holiday
has been observed there are many activities going on around the country to
celebrate the event. The main theme of the celebrations is commemorating
the history of Vietnam. All around town banners are hanging along the
streets providing information about national heroes, so as to remind the
young generation about the past.

There is also a wide variety of entertainment planned
for the Hung Kings Anniversary, which coincides with Unification Day and May
Day, plus the weekend, making it a longer holiday for workers. Many leisure
centres around the country are organising a variety of activities to lure
guests to their places for relaxation.

Phu Tho Province

The Hung Kings Festival has been celebrated with many
activities from the 6th to the 10th day of the third lunar month (April 22
to 26) at the historical site of the Hung Kings Temple in Phu Tho Province,
Viet Tri City and the areas surrounding this site.

The festival opens with the launching of the Hung
Kings Fair with the participation of more than 100 businesses from the
handicraft villages in and around Phu Tho Province from April 20 to 26 at
the centre of Viet Tri City. Another fair of handicraft products and an art
and cultural festival were also launched at the Hung Kings Temple on Nghia
Linh Mountain in Phu Tho Province yesterday with activities such as folk
musical performances, a traditional costume display, and more.

Tomorrow will be the cooking of square glutinous rice
cakes and the making of round rice cake, and the display of food specialties
of the region. A swimming competition in the Lo River will also be held
tomorrow, and at night, there will be a fireworks display to welcome
travellers from around the country.

On April 26, an incense burning ceremony to pay
tribute to the Hung Kings will be held at Thuong Temple on Nghia Linh
Mountain with the participation of the representatives of the Vietnamese
government. The ceremony will start at the festival centre, proceed to
Thuong Temple, the Hung Kings Tombs with flower offerings and an incense
burning ceremony, and conclude at the bust of Uncle Ho.

At the festival lasting from April 20 to 26, there
will be traditional cultural activities from the era of the Hung Kings, the
founders of the country. Other venues will have a palanquin procession,
copper drum beating exhibits, cooking contests and folk sports such as
crossbow shooting and chess.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the official ceremony to pay
tribute to the Hung Kings will be organised at the Hung Kings Temple in the
Zoological and Botanical Garden on April 26. The ceremony will start at 7
a.m. with activities such as a palanquin procession, incense burning
ceremony, dragon dances and more. In addition, on this day, there will be
the inaugural presentation by some enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City of the
copper calligraphy of the famous sentence by Uncle Ho about the Hung Kings.

The guests of honour in the ceremony will present
2,000 gifts to visitors and children with difficulties and there will be a
dance and music performance dubbed “The legend of the Hung Kings” to raise
funds for the poor.

In the garden, there will also be an area for folk
games such as clay pig beating, climbing trees, footbridge crossing,
blindfolded coconut picking, human chess, wrestling and more. There will be
other areas such as a calligraphy display area, a stage for children,
mini-games and juggling. Visitors to the festival will also enjoy Vietnamese
traditional dishes such as rice balls with sesame, grilled sweet potatoes,
maniocs and seafood, square and round glutinous cakes and more.

In preparation for this first-ever event, Suoi Tien
invested VND 4 billion to upgrade the King Hung Temple, which sits nestled
in the park, and to build a stage with over 3,000 seats.

The park will kick off the festival on April 26 and
close on May 1. During that time, there will be a Hung Kings parade in the
park with the participation of some 1,000 people and representatives of 25
ethnic people coming from around the country, such as Thai, Tay, H’Mong, E
De and K’Ho among others. In the parade there will be 600 pairs of banh
chung or banh day, a sticky rice cake with origins from the Hung Kings
legend.

Performances of Vietnamese martial arts, Son Tinh Thuy
Tinh legend and folk games will also take place during the festival.

Entrance tickets are priced at VND 30,000 per adult
and VND 16,000 per child. On the April 26, the park offers 50% discount for
tickets.

In another part of town, organisers at Dam Sen Park
are rolling up their sleeves to prepare some traditional activities for the
event. One that is sure to be popular is a huge banh chung, sticky rice
cake, weighing around 2 tons and made from 1,000 kilogrammes of sticky rice,
green peas and meat, and leaves to cover it. On April 26, after the
ceremonial offering of the banh chung to King Hung, the cake will be cut
into pieces to serve guests in the way guests received gifts from their
ancestors.

Also taking place will be boat racing in the large
ponds nearby with some 40 racing teams. The rowers will be students and
workers.

Another main attraction will be a strange performances
including people pulling a 5-ton van with their teeth, pumping a tire with
their eyes, exstinguishing a candle flame with their eyes and playing the
flute through the nose, among others. (SGT)